The participants from Spain part of project ”Entrepreneurship 4 Integration” wrote an article about the sitation of refugees in their countries. Enjoy reading!
Spain is ranked third among the EU countries with the most applicants behind Germany and France, and ahead of Greece and Italy. The percentage of applications filed in Spain is 16% of the total EU. The migration route to Spain became the second most frequented route in the Mediterranean. At the beginning of 2019, the majority arrived mainly through the Gibraltar Strait and The Alboran Sea, but from the last quarter of 2019 the dangerous Atlantic route to the Canary Islands was reactivated, with a 106% increase. Nevertheless, the situation refugees have to face when they try to come to Spain is rather disadvantaged if compared to the average EU rates. In 2019, there were 118264 asylum applications, of which only 60198 were solved, giving the refugee status exclusively to 1653 people. This proves the lack of legal means allowing the entrance to Spanish borders. We need to highlight, however, the granting of 39776 permits for humanitarian reasons, the vast majority to persons from Venezuela, but also to people from Ukraine, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Perú or Colombia (in fact, 77% of the total of people coming to Spain are from Latin America). On the other hand, the requirement for an airport transit visa explains the sharp decline in the rate of people coming from Syria, Palestine or Yemen. It is also important to point out that, unfortunately, refugees still do not have the possibility of requesting transfer from our embassies to apply for asylum, a measure covered by the law that would prevent travel with an infinite human cost for thousands of people. While only 2% of the petitions were made in the Centers for the Internship of Foreigners.
LIVING CONDITIONS. Although the State Government has not yet taken the respective measures to facilitate the reception of hundreds of Syrian refugees in Spain, Some of our cities have taken very seriously the fact of opening them a space in our territory and have created what is called the Network of Shelter Cities, a partnership agreement between cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Córdoba, Huelva or Cádiz in order to create the optimum conditions for the arrival of these people and their subsequent integration.